Semiconductor devices are typically manufactured on semiconductor wafers or other types of workpieces using sophisticated equipment and processes that enable reliable, high-quality manufacturing. The individual dies (e.g., devices) generally include integrated circuits and a plurality of bond-pads coupled to the integrated circuits. The bond-pads provide external contacts through which supply voltage, electrical signals, and other input/output parameters are transmitted to/from the integrated circuits. The bond-pads are usually very small, and they are typically arranged in dense arrays having a fine pitch between bond-pads. The wafers and dies can also be quite delicate. As a result, the dies are packaged to protect the dies and to connect the bond-pads to arrays of larger terminals that can be soldered to printed circuit boards.
One challenge of manufacturing semiconductor components is cost effectively packaging the dies. Electronic product manufacturers are under continuous pressure to reduce the size of their products. Accordingly, microelectronic die manufacturers seek to reduce the size of the packaged dies incorporated into the electronic products. One approach to reducing the size of packaged dies is to reduce the thickness of the dies. For example, the backside of a wafer is often ground, etched, or otherwise processed to reduce the thickness of the wafer. After being thinned, the wafer is cut to singulate the dies.
Reducing the thickness of the wafer, however, can cause several manufacturing defects. For example, as the thickness of the wafer decreases, the backside of the wafer is more likely to chip during singulation, at least partially because cracks in the wafer can more readily propagate from one surface to another surface of the wafer. Moreover, if the dies include photodiode, photogate, or other types of photo-sensing devices, then infrared radiation used during lithography processes can potentially damage these photo-sensing devices. Accordingly, there is a need to improve the processing of thinned semiconductor workpieces.